Metallic Tree

What happens when you let yourself play.

While I was away in Prague, the stained glass windows in St Vitus’s Cathedral made a huge impact on me. I’ve always loved stained glass, but something about the colours and the sheer amount of glass in that building, touched me somewhere – the greens and blues were especially wonderful. Do you ever get the feeling that you are bathing in the coloured light?

Then, when I got home, the latest issue of Cloth, Paper, Scissors, was waiting for me. In it, was an article about the artist Kirsty Quinn and some small pictures of her work.

Again, something about the use of colour and texture touched a spot in me.

I found myself wanting to try to do something with these inspirations. So, I’ve been having a little play.

I found some air-dry clay in the cupboard, rolled it out and then spent a happy hour embossing shapes and lines into it. Of course, it would hardly be me if a tree hadn’t planted itself in there too.

Today, with the clay being nice and hard, I’ve carried on playing, by painting it with a combination of acrylic inks and paints – most with metallic finishes – I’m a sucker for shiny things.

And I finished it off with some rub-on metallic wax. I really enjoyed doing it. Back to the stitching now.

Here’s the result.